picking a profession based off difficulty to play

so i was thinkin today

alot of people still claim mesmers as being really hard to play and complex.but i mean,i still like the deception and trickery aspects of the profession but is it really worth not picking a profession based off how hard it is to play or is it more based off your build or other things that dont rely on mechanics and profession in terms of difficulty
if i remember right i eather saw this argument or had it on another forum and it seemed like there was a easy way of playing every profession so im wondering if playstyle and other things should come before difficulty in terms of picking a profession

I don't find any profession more difficult to play than the others. Some are more work for the same or lesser result- pass on that. It's just sloppy design in some cases; Engineer or Thief, for example.

I 'd imagine most people choose for fun. And for some, fun is found through conquering a challenge.

Took the words out of my mouth!

I enjoy difficulty and by playing a difficult character it tends to make me shine in all aspects of the game, I especially love playing a complicated class/character that not many understand so I can surprise and toy with them when I please.

I'm going with play style over difficulty personally. There's nothing more satisfying than successfully playing a profession that suits my play style rather than successfully playing a difficult one. That said, that is my current perspective when it comes to GW2. I'm sure that in the months and years to come, I'll probably swing and say "I find it more satisfying to successfully play a more difficult profession," just for the shear challenge of it.

"Do not only practice your art, but force yourself into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine." -- Ludwig Van Beethoven

I personally find it to be much more satisfying to master a class/profession which is considered to be harder to play with.

In all honesty though, I don't believe that there's a big gap in difficulty when it comes to Gw2 professions. They're all fairly simple to get into but at the same time have their own hidden tricks that only a more experienced player will uncover. Unfortunately, there will always be people whining about how hard x profession is, or how overpowered y is, instead of practicing to improve themselves.

If they're hard to play and take skill to learn they should be more powerful than other classes when mastered properly. It can be hard for an MMO developer to balance this however. Honestly it's an ideal that is more suited to other genres like MOBAs.

sometimes, hard to play might be either rewarding or dissapointing, for example, having to press x buttons to do something "y" when another class that behaves similar to said class have to work less for "y". I think people should play the class they identify more regardless of being hard or popular.

I think people should play the class they identify more regardless of being hard or popular.

well thats kinda why ive been on the fence with mesmers.i like the whole deception and trickery thing they have goin on but it just seems like ive heard alot more people talk about how hard it is to play a mesmer then people talk about how easy it is and i dont want some super hard complicated class to play

I'd say the ranged classes are probably easier than the melee, simply because kiting is kiting, if you can do it in one game you can pretty much do it in all.
Melee is harder, only because there's a whole new dynamic rhythm to understand, and you MUST pay attention or you'll get stomped as armor doesn't have much impact on incoming damage (-15% for heavy).

I'd say the ranged classes are probably easier than the melee, simply because kiting is kiting, if you can do it in one game you can pretty much do it in all.
Melee is harder, only because there's a whole new dynamic rhythm to understand, and you MUST pay attention or you'll get stomped as armor doesn't have much impact on incoming damage (-15% for heavy).

Tend to agree with that comment especially with ranged having pets / turrets etc to add insult to injury there are ways around it can just get a little tedious at times

What is difficult differs greatly from person to person, I find warlocks the smoothest and most effortless class in wow, but I have to really stress out to do decently with a feral druid.

For me the hardest profession to play is elementalist, having double the skill pool to constantly be making choices with, and double the cooldowns to rotate through on top of having 4 different attunement cooldown restrictions. For some people managing all that is easy, while finding other aspects of professions more difficult.

Back in BWE1, I hated working on my thief. I wanted to be only melee, and most of the shit was pretty retarded. Handling more than one mob often times lead to death. I'm unsure if that's still the same for their melee options, but short bow makes things WORLDS easier. If thief survivability hasn't improved since then, I'd recommend doing that if you want a difficult time.

I usually pick the harder class cos it seems more unique and interesting to me.
However, in saying that, I'm sick of it.
I was a ritualist in GW1 and a Druid since vanilla and whilst both have now been changed so much that there are specs that are relatively easy to play with. I'm just sick of having to work twice as hard for the same results.

So this time, I'm rolling warrior.

I'd assume mesmer and engineer will be the harder classes this time around. In saying that, Mesmer seems quite a bit different than it was in gw2, more of a battle mage instead of all about debuffs/buffs.

I don't find any profession more difficult to play than the others. Some are more work for the same or lesser result- pass on that. It's just sloppy design in some cases; Engineer or Thief, for example.

Can you elaborate on this? Insulting a game without any explanation is only catering towards the forum-trolls.

---------- Post added 2012-08-09 at 04:42 AM ----------

Lewis B: Lastly, what profession have you been spending the most time with lately?

Jon: Engineer, guardian, warrior, and thief are the four I have done the most with since the beta weekend. Today will probably be some more thief stuff before I move on to the other four. We try to just continually sweep the entire profession list, brushing up the things that need help.

Can you elaborate on this? Insulting a game without any explanation is only catering towards the forum-trolls.

Erm, that's not an insult. And games are not people to feel insulted.

But as to why, it's right there in the second sentence; Some are more work for the same or lesser result.

For example, an Engineer wishing to do ranged damage is at a disadvantage compared to a Ranger with a longbow. The latter does more damage with fewer issues. As an Engineer you would need to use 1 weapon set, 2 turrets and hope the RNG of elixirs pushes you into the same realm as a Ranger. Meanwhile a Ranger with a Longbow hits 3 buttons and delivers almost 4x the damage. Without the pet alive.

But as to why, it's right there in the second sentence; Some are more work for the same or lesser result.

For example, an Engineer wishing to do ranged damage is at a disadvantage compared to a Ranger with a longbow. The latter does more damage with fewer issues. As an Engineer you would need to use 1 weapon set, 2 turrets and hope the RNG of elixirs pushes you into the same realm as a Ranger. Meanwhile a Ranger with a Longbow hits 3 buttons and delivers almost 4x the damage. Without the pet alive.

More work for a worse or no better result is sloppy class design.

Some classes will always do certain things better than others ... I wouldn't call that sloppy design. I'd call that inevitable design. It would be incredibly difficult to make 8 classes all play differently enough to justify each class while also making them all equal in every way.

Since when mesmers are considered harder than anything else?
I just think those that want to play mesmer just want to shift the attention of people away from the fabulousness of the profession towards challenge.
Mesmer's going to be my last choise. Butterflies and shit aren't for me.